The first is an encounter with a group of merchants headed toward Alhadra, who warn that though the roads are generally safe, several travelers have gone missing in this area of late. They’re otherwise nice enough and send our heroes on their way. But during that encounter, Cornelius happened to catch the eye of the caravan master, Rorchard. The older-half-elf found himself quite taken with the scholarly warlock, and Cornelius was surprised to note that the feeling was mutual.

What began as a night of passion and comfort flourished into a promise of patronage for the merchant if he would stay in the city and help manage the mercantile side of Cornelius’ archaeological expeditions. Before either of them had time to think about it, they had a relationship of both business and pleasure, plus a great deal of affection and respect, at least from Rorchard.

Our heroes continued north only to rest at the grove of a druid who was quickly revealed to be a sand bride. After an intense battle, the heroes scattered her mephit minions and blasted her into a statue of glass. They then did a quick search for the bodies of her other victims, aided by the efforts of band of pixies. Upon hearing of their quest to destroy the vile hag, the pixies offered assistance in the form of a vial of refined snake venom.

Sleeping on the defiled ground of the sand bride’s lair, Cornelius received a dream-message from his demonic patron, Demisexagon. The demon seemed delighted by the direction of Cornelius’ research, admonishing him not to get distracted from investigating the ruins, and to look deeper into the magical practices of the ancient fae of Alhadra.

Then the heroes pressed on, finding their way to the city of Glamis, where they found propaganda campaigns vilifying the wood elves as inbred, baby-raping yokels and pretenders to the grace and nobility of the high elves. They acquire the research they need about the Alhadran magical practices, local geneology, and other issues, and after renting accommodations at the Chastised Unicorn, they resolve to get out of the city, dispatch the hag, and return to Alhadra with alacrity.

Kobolds Ate My Laundry

Cornelius was searching for the ancient Ruins of Alhadra and several mystical writings said to be contained there, accompanied by Ashe whom he’d commissioned as a local guide and bodyguard. The first step, however, as finding its location within The Forbidden Forest. Centuries ago, by ancient compact, the forest had been declared off-limits as the territory of the winged kobolds who lived there.

These kobolds had been violating the truce recently by robbing frontier farms and ranches. These raids were normally nonviolent, but they defended themselves with force when anyone tried to apprehend the thieves. This was of particular interest to Cornelius not only because of their activities, but because several of the stone blocks they dropped on their pursuers were in fact bricks bearing guild marks from the kilns of Ancient Alhadra.

Our heroes eventually deduced that the raids were actually following a migratory pattern. They headed the kobolds off at the next farm that would have been hit, at which point instead of a battle, they managed to parley with the kobolds’ leader, Frido. Frido told the heroes that the kobold would happily return to their village and cease raiding if the “trees” would stop attacking them. He revealed that much of the vegetation had animated and begun attacking the kobolds in the night.

He also revealed that there were some human hostages still caged in the village, and that while some of the winged kobolds had been dropping food to them, none of them were willing to risk themselves to free them from their cages and secure their escape from the bloodthirsty plants. A s a payment for their efforts on the kobolds’ behalf, Frido gave them his Robe of Eyes so that they could see the spirits haunting the forest.

Thus equipped and intrigued, our heroes set off. They fought their way through the kobold village, evading traps and battling animated weapons and armor, skeletons, and blights. The presence of the blights, plus the odd aberrant vegetation in the forest and encroaching on the local farms, were all the information Cornelius needed to guess that they were dealing with an infestation precipitated by a Gulthias Tree, a magical tree that spawns such corruption, created when a tree is contaminated by a restless or undead spirit, usually when its roots encounter a buried corpse.

While they camped in the village, they also encountered, rescued, and shared their camp with Deekin and Meepo, two elderly kobolds who had not managed to escape the village and had been forced into hiding. The heroes gave the two elders enough food to survive until the blight could be ended, and then advised them to barricade themselves in the old building they’d sheltered in.

Eventually they found the tree of a dryad and very nearly had to fight her, as she was bound to defend the Gulthias Tree. After some quick diplomacy, the heroes learned that the dryad had been bound there by the hag Lettie Worm-Fingers and even got directions to her lair, and promised to depart the dryad’s grove rather than press on.

They then circumnavigated the dryad and carefully approached the Gulthias Tree, only to have it animate itself and attack them. Ashe was nearly killed, but Cornelius managed to prevail after her fall with frantic shoot-and-run tactics. As soon as the tree was destroyed, Cornelius was able to see the wicked spirit depart the tree thanks to his robe, and they then dug up the unsanctified bones Lettie had buried beneath it to be properly interred.

The heroes wasted no time telling Frido that the blight had ended, though their village was still in shambles, and attempting to broker a new peace between Lord Fieron and the kobolds. After setting those events in motion, they then set out to hunt down the hag who caused this whole mess.

The adventure log is where you list the sessions and adventures your party has been on, but for now, we suggest doing a very light “story so far” post. Just give a brief overview of what the party has done up to this point. After each future session, create a new post detailing that night’s adventures.

One final tip: Don’t stress about making your Obsidian Portal campaign look perfect. Instead, just make it work for you and your group. If everyone is having fun, then you’re using Obsidian Portal exactly as it was designed, even if your adventure log isn’t always up to date or your characters don’t all have portrait pictures.